Area of influence

Affiliation

Akatosh, the Dragon God of Time,[1] is the chief deity of the Divines,[2] the official religion of the human empires throughout much of Tamriel's history. He represents the qualities of endurance, invincibility, and everlasting legitimacy.[1] Along with Lorkhan and Mara, he is one of three deities found in almost every Tamrielic religion, with only the Dunmer and Orcs not having a dragon god of time in their pantheon.[3][1] He is generally considered to be the first of the gods to form in the Beginning Place.[1] After his establishment, other spirits followed his example, and the various pantheons of the world emerged.[1]Before the Ages of Man suggests that he and Auri-El are the same being, but further confirms that after his formation, time began.[4] Akatosh is considered the god-defender of the Empire.

Dragon Breaks

A Dragon Break is an event where the timeline of the world of Nirn is suddenly split. They are known as Dragon Breaks because Akatosh, who is symbolised as a Dragon, is the god of Time and thus a break in the timeline can be viewed as breaking the Dragon, so to speak.

Only three Dragon Breaks have been recorded and verified historically as due to their very nature the majority of people would be unaware of their occurrence. The first of these is referred to as the Middle Dawn, and occurred when the Marukhati Selectives "danced on the tower."[8] This was done to remove the merish aspects of Akatosh, which the Selectives found offensive.[9] It lasted for either 1,008 or 150 years.[10]

Amulet of Kings

The artifact known as the Amulet of Kings was created by Akatosh. As lord of the Aedra, Akatosh took pity on the plight of Men, who were slaves of the Ayleids,[13] and drawing precious blood from his own heart, blessed Alessia with the blood of dragons. He also made a Covenant that so long as Alessia's generations were true to the dragon blood, Akatosh would endeavor to seal tight the Oblivion Gate for good and deny the armies of Daedra and undead to their enemies, the Ayleids.[14] Akatosh then gave Alessia the Amulet of Kings and the Eternal Dragonfires, which, when lighted, would restrict the Daedra to the realms of Oblivion. The Amulet contains a gem of Alessia herself, and eight other gems, one for each of the Eight Divines.[14]

Akatosh was named after the Daggerfall beta tester Lawrence Szydlowski, who would sign off his posts with "also known as the old Smaug himself" (the first letter of each word forming the letters "Akatosh").[UL 1]